Finding Richard Castle – It's in the Bank
Summary – Castle is kidnapped because of something that happened during his childhood. Now it's caught up with him at the worst possible time.
Author's Notes – Hey, I finally had a plot bunny that doesn't have anything to do with the CIA or Castle's father. So this idea just wouldn't go away, but it's going to be short. It's mildly based on various spoilers I've read (because I do read spoilers), but I'm sure they aren't doing this. And yes, I know that Beckett, Espo, and Ryan wouldn't be allowed near Castle's case because they are too close and that in real life, they could even get thrown off the force for it, but it makes for good drama and isn't that what we're here for?
Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. The OCs came out of my imagination.
Chapter 1 – Queen of Hearts
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"Two courtside seats to Knicks," said Castle, as he looked at the cards in his hand and then up at the thug babysitting him today.
The man barked a laugh at him. "Hah – you think I watch sports? They're fixed. Come on, man, you gotta do better than that."
"Okay," said Castle, taking a breath and thinking. "This may be more to your liking, Einstein – a seat on one of the first commercial space flights."
The man nodded. "Yeah, yeah – I could go for that. So what you got?"
"Two pair," said Castle as he placed his cards face up on the table.
"Shit," said the man as he threw his cards down and then looked at his watch for the millionth time that day. "You are one lucky sob."
"Some people would disagree," Castle said as he scraped the folded pieces of paper towards him with his right hand.
His left hand lay uselessly on the table. They had broken it the first time he had tried to escape, thinking that only having one good hand would slow him down, which it really did to Castle's utter dismay. There's wasn't a lot you could to with only one good hand.
"Let's go again," Einstein said, shuffling the cards and then dealing another hand.
Castle took a breath. "Sure, it's not like I have to be anyplace soon."
He leaned back in the chair and looked around the small trailer that had been his unwanted home the last couple of months.
It had definitely seen better days, probably looking for all intents and purposes like it was deserted wherever it was parked.
The windows were boarded up on the outside so that he couldn't see out. Two pop-up vents in the ceiling and two grated vents in the floor provided the much-needed air circulation. The door was bolted from the outside when he was here by himself, which hadn't happened lately.
But even if he had been alone, it wouldn't have done any good to get the door open because a heavy shackle was locked around his left ankle and that shackle was connected by a 3' chain to a metal rod that ran the length of the trailer. He could move around but there wasn't much of anywhere to go.
At one point, he had thought about sawing his foot off to get free, but there weren't any road noises, not even when someone showed up to check on him, so he knew they weren't near any form of civilization.
He didn't remember how he gotten here after the crash, but by the marks he made on the wall when he had woken up the first day, he had been here almost 4 months – 4 months of his life wasted in this hell hole.
At least there was running water in the bathroom and whoever was keeping him here supplied the barest of necessities – bottled water, granola bars, dried fruit, jerky, and toiletries – making sure he didn't have any metal objects available after his first escape attempt.
For the first couple of weeks he was here, he had waited and watched, biding his time, as he devised a plan to escape. Whoever was holding him was fairly predictable – someone would show up with food and water every 4 days and take away the garbage. He just simply needed to free himself from the rod that he was chained to during the times they weren't here.
He kept testing the floor where the rod was connected to it, looking for any weakness, and finally found one – the floor wasn't solid – it echoed slightly when he knocked on it. He just needed something to cut through the wood and he eventually found a piece of metal that he could use to pry up the boards. After that, he might be able to get to the nuts on the bolts that held the rod in place. He couldn't do anything about the shackle around his ankle, but at least he'd be free of the rod.
The work was slow because the piece of metal was dull, but he was finally seeing some progress after several weeks.
He had to be careful so they wouldn't find out what he was doing and marked each day so that he knew when they would be coming.
On the days they were supposed to be there, he slid a chair over the end of the rod near the front of the trailer and put a towel on the other end of the rod so they couldn't see his handiwork.
Which worked perfectly until they showed up one day early and realized what he was doing. Then, they simply beat the crap out of him, broke his hand, and reinforced the floor with metal plates so that the boards wouldn't come loose.
After that, someone was there every day, sitting, watching him as he watched them, a warped game of cat and mouse.
Finally, out of shear boredom, he asked one of the men if they had a deck of cards – maybe they could pass the time playing poker. A few ignored him, a few took him up on the offer, such as Einstein sitting across from him.
As Castle looked at his cards and then at the man sitting across from him, a movement near one of the roof vents caught his eye.
Birds and squirrels were frequent visitors to the roof, but this was the first time one was curious enough to try to come into the trailer.
He was about to say something when he realized what it was – a drone – an ultra-quiet drone from the lack of the sound. He had read about those but didn't realize that they were available yet.
Castle sat back and looked at his cards, bouncing his shackled leg so that the chain rattled, covering up the sound should the drone make any and also giving the person monitoring the drone an indication of what was going on. "Sorry – got a cramp," he said as the man glared at him. "I'll take 1 card."
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The 12th had gotten an anonymous tip worth $50,000 if it panned out that Castle was being held in a trailer in the woods and had quickly put a plan in place to check it out.
They had had numerous tips in the 4 months that Castle had been missing that were just dead-ends, people wanting their 15 minutes of fame.
But if it was true, they couldn't just storm the place without knowing what the situation was inside, so SWAT was called in.
The monitor in the van parked a mile from the trailer sparked to life and the drone operator moved the drone to various positions to get a better look inside the trailer.
"There," said Beckett, pointing to one of the men at the table, breathing a sigh of relief for the first time in months. "That's Castle."
"Are they playing cards?" asked the leader as they watched the scene inside of the trailer as Castle lay down another hand and scraped pieces of paper towards him. He turned to Beckett. "Are you sure he's being held against his will?"
Beckett looked at him. "Yes, I'm sure."
"What's that noise?" asked Ryan as they heard the clanking. "Is that from the drone?"
The man monitoring the drone shook his head. "No, it's from inside the trailer."
"That's Castle," smiled Beckett. "He's letting us know that he saw the drone. They must have him restrained."
Several men in SWAT gear got out of another van and slung their automatics over their shoulders.
"Detectives, you stay here," the leader said. "We'll move in and secure the area."
"No way in hell," Beckett responded as she shrugged on her body armor.
The man looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Just understand – I'm taking the lead."
"Yes, sir," Beckett replied, looking at Espo and Ryan as they shrugged on their body armor.
"Let's move out," the SWAT commander said to the team.
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The team slowly moved in to surround the trailer. The leader carefully snaked in a video camera under the door to get a better look and then pulled back.
The door wasn't locked, but they were going to have to be quick about this because the other man in the trailer has a 9 mm and looked like he wouldn't hesitate to use it.
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Castle looked at his hand again and then at the man. "Come on – you can do better than that," he mimicked. "How about where Jimmy Hoffa is buried?"
The man barked a laugh at him. "You think I'd still be working if I knew that. I'd retired with my millions from the publicity."
Castle rattled the chain louder as he watched the door handle turn. "Combination to Fort Knox then?"
"My grandma's special recipe for spaghetti sauce – it makes the angels weep," the man said.
Castle shrugged. "That'll do."
"So what do you have?" the man asked, pointing with his chin at Castle's cards, as he looked at his own cards.
"Four queens," Castle said as he laid them out on the table.
"Are you shitting me?" the man said, leaning forward to look at the cards and then back up at Castle. "I only see three."
"Queen of Spades, Queen of Diamonds, and Queen of Clubs," said Castle, pointing to the cards on the table. "However, the Queen of Hearts is standing behind you with a gun pointed at your head. And she's really pissed at having her wedding day ruined."
The man's frowned deepened and he started to turn around, only to be stopped by a gun pressing into the back of his skull.
"You move a muscle, I'll blow your brains out," said Beckett softly.
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