"Now what's going on?" Kate demanded to know, watching Rick spread the photocopied journal sheets out across the table.

"Something Kazia said, about it not being the right place ..."

"I remember. Vaguely." She leaned forward. "So?"

"So it's a full moon." He kept sifting the pages, scanning quickly then discarding.

"And?" She shook her head. "Castle, if you don't tell me what it is you think you've found out –"

"My mind only just put it together." He pounced. "This one."

She moved closer, looking over his shoulder. "It looks pretty much like all the others."

"No." Rick laid it down, pushing the rest out of the way. "Damn it, his handwriting's worse than on the other ones."

"Let me see." She made him move over so she could get closer.

"It says something about the moon, about the right phases."

Kate nodded, her eyes narrowed as she concentrated. "'It has to be at the time of the full moon,'" she read carefully. "'Otherwise they won't believe it. The phase has to be right, but there are a few days grace either side which should give me plenty of time.'" She stopped in appalled understanding. "He was deciding when to kill himself."

"When to get them to kill him," Rick corrected gently. He picked up another sheet. "This is dated the next day." He read aloud. "'I shouldn't have played with them. It wasn't fair, I know that, but it was easy. Just selecting the right words to use, and they follow. Like so many sheep. No. Not sheep. Like so many children, lost and lonely.'" Rick felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck, as if someone had walked over his grave.

"None of this made sense before," Kate realised. "Only now, knowing what he did ..."

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty."

"I know." She took the page from him, continuing to read. "'Whatever I did, they believe. And I've told them there are two places. I wish we could use the first, so much more melodramatic. They'd appreciate it. But there's talk around about some play being put on that night, in the shadow of the castle. Have to be the second choice. Not that it matters to me. One place is as good as any.'" She looked up. "Second choice?"

"The warehouse."

"Right." She waited. "So? You've got the full moon, first and second choices ... what's going on in that brain of yours?"

Rick was saved from answering by Alexis running back down the stairs.

"Well? Did you talk to her?" he asked his daughter.

Alexis shook her head, clutching her cellphone. "Kazia's parents are out of town. Some political event in Washington, I think. And the people I spoke to weren't very helpful, just that she and Jerzy are spending the night at a friend's."

"Did they say which friend?"

"No."

"But they're not at the Embassy."

"No." Her hands twisted on the phone. "Dad, what's going on?"

"I think Kazia's going to try again."

Kate straightened up. "You mean kill herself?"

Alexis gasped.

"No. I mean die to live forever." Rick began to pace, rubbing his hands through his hair. "I should have realised. When she was talking, about it being the wrong place, she meant the warehouse. And she didn't believe us, did she? About Keith."

"I think she knew he wasn't going to rise again."

"Because they did it in the wrong place." Rick stopped, leaned on the table, staring at the journal page. "And there is another one. And the moon's still full."

Kate was beginning to get the feeling of something crawling up her spine. As much as she disapproved of intuitive leaps, preferring good honest police work backed up by evidence, she had to admit her partner's unease was catching. "Where?"

"It doesn't say."

She sat down, going through the rest of the pages herself. "There must be something."

A slim hand reached out, took a handful. "I'll help," Alexis said.

"You don't have to," Kate said.

"I want to. They're my friends."

Rick smiled at his daughter. "Thanks, sweetheart."

"You're welcome, Dad." She managed a smile back, then took the pages to the couch, sitting down and hooking her feet under her.

For five minutes there was no talking, no sound other than the rustling of paper, then Rick threw his down in disgust. "This is taking too long."

"There's a lot to go through," Kate reasoned. "And Keith wasn't exactly in a normal frame of mind when he wrote it most of it, especially once he'd stopped taking his medication. We just have to –"

"Here." Alexis interrupted, swinging her legs down and sitting forwards.

Rick was instantly at her side. "Show me."

"Keith is writing here about power nodes. I remember Kazia used to go on about them too, only she could never remember the name. She used to say they were conjunctions of psychic power lines."

"Psychic power?"

"That's what she said. That it was a point where there was such a concentration of power that anything could happen there." She looked a little shame-faced. "I didn't believe her."

"That's okay, sweetheart." Rick glanced at Kate. "But that will be it. Where she's gone."

"We just need to know a location."

Alexis held out the journal page. "There's a map."

Kate looked down the squiggling lines, encased in a long rectangle. She shook her head. "It doesn't give any names."

"It's Central Park," Rick said unexpectedly.

"What?" They both stared at him.

"That's why I took this place," he said, getting to his feet and rummaging in a drawer. He dragged out a map, opening it up and laying it on the table on top of the rest of the journal pages. "So Alexis could be close to trees." He looked up, seeing the amusement on one face and warm indulgence on the other. "Okay," he added, shrugging. "So I'm just a big softy at heart. Just look, won't you?"

They leaned forward.

"Damn," Kate breathed.

"See?" He wasn't going to crow in triumph, but it was a close thing.

"But it doesn't say where in the Park. And that's a hell of a big area to cover." Kate was already reaching for her own phone. "If we're even sure it's tonight."

"I'm sure."

"And we do know where," Alexis said.

Kate paused in the act of speed-dialling the precinct, and Rick stared at his daughter.

"Pumpkin?" he asked.

"Keith wrote about it being in the shadow of the castle, right?" When her father nodded she went on, "Up until yesterday there was a guerrilla performance of As You Like It going on there."

"Monkeys?" As soon as Rick said the word, his mind told him to stop being stupid and listen.

"No. That's what they call themselves. Guerrilla Players. Totally unofficial. I heard about it at school and wanted to go, but I didn't think you'd let me."

"Where, Alexis?" Kate prompted.

"The Castle. Belvedere Castle. By the lake."

Rick grabbed his jacket. "That's it." He kissed Alexis on the cheek. "You're amazing."

"Just remember that when I ask for a raise in my allowance."

"Whatever you want, you just give me a figure." He grinned, then a thought crossed his mind. "Can you write down Kazia's cellphone number?"

She nodded, picking up a pen and scrawling it on the edge of the map. "Here." She folded it quickly and held it out to him.

"Thanks." He ran to the door, Kate already outside, car keys jangling. "I'll call, soon as I know."

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised.

He flashed her another grin and was gone, the door slamming behind him.

Alexis sighed, praying they would be in time. Then she headed for the kitchen, determined to wash up. Anything to keep her mind off what might be happening at that moment.

---

They were in the car, heading the few blocks to the Park.

"She's clever," Kate commented as they made agonisingly slow progress, despite the siren going.

"That she is."

"Are you sure she's yours?"

"Meredith promised."

"And you believed her?"

Rick knew she was talking to try and relieve some of the tension, something he usually did, and was grateful. Somehow he just couldn't shake the feeling that this was his fault. If he'd listened more closely, if they'd read the journal pages properly, if he hadn't insisted on going to Antonelli's, maybe they could have stopped this before a young woman's life was in the balance. He shrugged. "The DNA test was pretty positive."

Kate allowed the smile to curve her lips. "It might not be her, you know," she said after a moment as she manoeuvred around a truck.

Rick knew she wasn't talking about Alexis this time. "So it's Jerzy. Or one of the others, Peter or Rhiannon." He shook his head. "Someone else is going to die tonight if we don't end it."

"You're so sure."

"My gut instinct, okay?" he snapped, then immediately was sorry. "Kate, I ..."

"It's okay. I know." Her cellphone, sitting on the dash, began to ring. "Take it," she ordered.

Rick picked it up, activating the speaker.

"Boss?" It was Esposito, back at the precinct.

"Go ahead," Kate said.

"We tried, but Kazia Bazyli's phone is switched off, so we can't track her by GPS."

Kate exhaled heavily. "We need something to narrow it down."

"Alexis is right. It has to be the castle," Rick said. "'In the shadow of the castle.' That's what Keith wrote."

"That area's pretty heavily wooded," Esposito said. "You could pass right by and not see them."

"Then we do what we can," Kate affirmed, signalling and turning into Central Park. "We're taking the 79th Street Transverse, that should bring us right up behind –"

"It's closed," Rick said suddenly. "The road. They're doing some repairs."

Kate threw him an angry glare. "It didn't say so at the entrance. Are you sure?"

He pointed ahead. "Pretty positive."

There, just in the headlights, were striped barriers and looming construction equipment.

Kate pulled the car to a halt just in time. "Shit."

"Boss, Ryan and the back-up are coming to you," Esposito said quickly. "They'll be at your location in less than five minutes."

"No time," Rick said, climbing from the car. He looked around, trying to see into the darkness, to ignore the shadows where it seemed muggers and murderers must be lurking. He turned to tell Kate to switch off the headlights, but they died before he could speak. Blinking hard, making his eyes adjust as quickly as possible, he peered into the night.

Kate had got out, and was standing next to him. "Where's the moon when you need it, huh?"

Rick barely smiled, glancing up only once at the cloud cover. "Can't be too easy, Kate. Otherwise where would the fun be?" Suddenly he pointed. "There."

She strained to see, then realised she could pick out a tall turret. "Belvedere Castle," she said softly.

He nodded, then spoke once more into the phone. "Javier, my cell's on. Can you use the locator chip inside to track us?"

There was a pause while Esposito apparently conferred with the techs. "Got it."

"We're going cross country," Rick went on. "It's the only way. Use the GPS to make sure we don't get lost, okay?"

"We'll try."

"I'd be grateful. I don't fancy ending up in the middle of Turtle Pond."

A beam of light illuminated the trees in front of him, and he half-turned in surprise. Kate had a torch in her hand. She shrugged. "Be prepared," she said.

"I always knew you were a boy scout in a previous life." His teeth flashed white in the light, then he was off the path, into the woods.

"You have no idea," Kate breathed, following him quickly.

---

It was heavy going, far heavier than he'd imagined. Even with Esposito giving them instructions, he'd soon lost sight of the one and a half century old folly of Belvedere Castle under the canopy, and was relying more and more on following the beam of Kate's torch.

More than once he'd almost fallen, his mind conjuring treacherous images of the bodies he was stumbling over in the dark, lifeless and drained of blood, even though he knew it was just roots and not arms reaching up to catch at him.

Suddenly the trees thinned out, and he realised the looming bulk in front of him was the Castle itself.

"You should be on top of it," Esposito said, somewhat unnecessarily.

"We are," Kate replied, keeping the granite walls to her left as she followed them around. "Where are the paramedics?"

"Right behind you."

All at once Kate's foot slipped, and Rick reached out, grabbing hold of her at the last moment, tugging her into him.

She looked up, just able to make out his face in the ambient light from the city not that far away. "Thanks," she said, her heart beating faster than normal, her eyes fastened on his.

"You're welcome." He held her a moment longer, feeling her heat through his clothing, then reluctantly let go.

She swung the torch down, the beam catching the planes of rock from the man-made incline dropping sharply down to the water's edge. "Come on," she added, pushing all thoughts of falling and coming to an abrupt and messy end from her mind.

As he walked, Rick ran his hand along the stone blocks, taking comfort from their roughness, hewn from the bedrock. Then Kate turned the torch off. "Where?" he asked softly.

"Down there," she whispered, pointing.

A light, something soft, barely making a dent in the night, in front and below them. And a sound, the regular humming of a machine.

Hurrying as safely as they could, within a few moments they were at the top of a slope, looking down onto a scene both macabre and strangely familiar.

Kazia Bazyli lay on a purple satin throw, a pillow under her head. Light from a single candle picked up the paleness of her complexion, highlighted by the absolutely simple, absolutely white bias-cut slip of a dress, arranged artistically around her legs. She held a lily in her hands, clasped across her breasts, and her eyes were closed.

To one side, standing in a small group, were three people, only Jerzy readily recognisable by his blond hair. The hum was coming from a small piece of apparatus next to Kazia's head.

They couldn't help make a noise as they made their way down the slope, and the trio standing turned, staring up.

"Stay where you are!" Kate called. "Police!"

Peter Trask took to his heels without even a backward glance, feet pounding along a narrow path that led down towards the lake. The girl, Rhiannon Docherty, her flaming red hair almost glowing in the torchlight, screamed and was about to follow, but Kate was too quick. Taking her down, she pinned the girl to the ground, reaching quickly for her cuffs.

Jerzy Bazyli stood as if in shock, his mouth open.

Rick, on the other hand, could see nothing but Kazia. He ran forward, noting with only a tiny part of his mind that this time the pumping machine wasn't feeding into jars, but letting her life blood slip into the earth, soaking it. As he reached her his foot slid on a wet stone, and he went down onto his knees with a bone-jarring force.

He ignored the immediate ache, instead pulling the tube from Kazia's neck, his fingers suddenly slick with her blood. The pump, deprived of liquid, changed note, sucking on air instead. He tossed it away, hearing the engine die as connections were lost, then a splash as it fell into the water, but all his concentration was on Kazia. Pressing his palm against the small wound, he yelled, "Need some help here!"

"Don't," Kazia said, batting at him with her hands. "I want to live forever."

"Stop it." He felt her nails graze his face. "You'll die."

"No. Live."

"Kazia, please."

Tears were rolling into her hair, but still she fought him. Until someone put his body across hers, pinning her arms down.

"Prosze, Kazia," Jerzy begged. "Nadal leza. Dla mnie."

She stared at her brother, then wailed, the sound travelling across the lake and startling sleeping birds into raucous complaint.

"What did you say?" Rick wanted to know.

"I asked her to lie still. For me." Jerzy was crying, tears sliding off his nose to fall onto his sister's gown.

Other shouts heralded the arrival of various back-up, and all at once the place was crowded.

"Let us take care of this now," a man said, putting his gloved hands down and taking Rick's away.

Rick leaned back, seeing the comforting and reassuring uniform of a paramedic doing his job. He got shakily to his feet. "You keep her going," he said quietly. "Just don't let her die."

"We'll do our best," one of them assured him.

---

It seemed to be a long time before Kate found him, sitting on a rock, staring at the castle looming above him.

"Penny for them," she asked, settling herself tiredly next to him.

"I'd be overcharging."

"Then next time I get it for free."

He smiled. "I was just thinking it was almost appropriate. Being here. At the denouement." He rolled the last word out, giving it depth and breadth.

"You mean because it's so ... Transylvanian?"

A chuckle worked its way up his chest. "That too. But I was thinking more about me. Richard Castle. Under the castle."

"I think it's just a coincidence." She went to touch the scratches on his cheek that Kazia had delivered, but her hand fell before she made contact.

He hadn't noticed. "Probably." He looked back over to where the paramedics were still working. Jerzy had refused to leave his sister's side, and even now was as close as he could get. "What about them?" Rick asked. "What happens to them now?"

Kate followed his gaze. "Honestly? I'm not sure. They need help, Kazia more than her brother. But I can't arrest them, not without getting into hot water with the State Department."

"Then tell her family. If they care at all, they'll get her everything she needs."

"And if they don't?"

Rick shrugged. He knew what he had with his own daughter wasn't unique, that there were other loving parents out there, whether it be couples, singles, or same sex. It just seemed that sometimes they were hard to find. "No idea, Katie."

She let him get away with it, just this once. "I think this time we'll let those a lot higher up decide."

"Fine by me." He didn't mind that they were both lying, that they'd both want to make sure. But instead of teasing her on it, he glanced around at the almost mystical surroundings. "Have you ever been to London?" he asked.

Kate nodded. "Once or twice."

"To Kensington Gardens?"

"No. Can't say I have."

"I have. Somebody took me there."

"A female somebody?"

"As it happens, yes. But that's not the point." He studied the bushes and trees, hearing a water bird call mournfully across the lake behind them. "It's a bit like this really. And there's a statue of a boy, holding a pipe."

"Peter Pan."

"I thought you said you hadn't been."

"Castle, I'm not totally ignorant."

"Sorry. Then you know the story."

"Captain Hook. Tinkerbell. The lost boys," Kate murmured.

"And girls. Let's not be sexist here." He shook his head. "Contrary to popular opinion I don't want to be Peter Pan," he said quietly. "I never did. I know I can't be a kid forever. I'm not sure I ever wanted to be. I wouldn't have Alexis, for a start. But sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to …"

"Take that awfully big adventure?"

"Maybe."

"No. You're the least likely man I've ever met to ever go that way willingly."

"You think?"

"And miss all this?" Kate asked, her arm sweeping to include the paramedics, the whole damn thing.

He smiled finally. "No. Besides, I'm looking forward to escorting Alexis down the aisle. My mother too, if she ever decides to get married again."

"Hold your grandchildren …"

Rick laughed. "Exactly."

"Teach them to be irresponsible, just like their grandpa."

"Never thought I'd do anything else." He rubbed wearily at his face. "By the way, how did they get here so fast?" he asked, his voice slightly muffled.

"We came the other way," Ryan explained, appearing from the gloom. "We've got Rhiannon Docherty in custody, and Peter Trask isn't going to get far."

"He's probably waiting to come back for his father's heart pump," Rick said, smiling slightly.

"What did you do with it?" Ryan wanted to know, then held up a hand. "You know, forget I asked." He looked at Kate. "Boss, can I have a word?"

"Sure. Wait here," Kate instructed Rick, joining her colleague and walking far enough away so they couldn't be over heard.

Rick just nodded, unsure he had the energy to follow her anyway. Besides, it was quite pleasant sitting on this rock, despite the fact that his mother would have chided him for using anything quite so damp for a chair. He could hear her voice now, warning him of the dangers, telling him in no uncertain terms that when he caught something he could go to someone else to put cream on it. For a few moments he entertained himself with listing all those he knew who would.

He became aware Kate was standing in front of him again.

"They think she'll be okay," she said, not bothering to hide the relief on her face.

"Thank God," Rick said fervently, releasing all the pent up tension with a huge sigh. At least something had gone right. He took out his phone to call Alexis, tell her the good news.

"I'd wash up a little before you go home, though," Kate suggested. "You're not exactly presentable at the moment."

He looked down in surprise at himself, and realised she was right. His jeans were stiff where he'd knelt in Kazia's blood, and more of the same was dried all over his hands. "Ah. Maybe you're right. But I still promised." As he went to dial, he found he could see quite clearly, and lifted his head. The sky had cleared, and a million pinpoints of light were shining down at them, the moon full and heavy on its journey across the heavens. "Um, how do we get out of here?" he asked, his brow furrowed as the thought came to him. "I didn't exactly take note of how we got in."

Kate put her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "I'd have thought it was fairly obvious, Castle."

"It might be to you, but …"

She laughed and pointed up. "It's easy. Just take the second star to the right …"

"And straight on 'til morning," he finished, grinning.