Alright kiddies, new story here. Came to me a few months ago and it's almost all written, chapters are being edited as I go along, so any delays will be due to that.
Reviews are love, constructive criticism included.
Rating is T/M for a reason. I would say 16 years and up, just for the nature of the story, please use discretion; I don't think it's all that graphic, but there you go.
Enjoy!
The room was dark. In a way, she was grateful for the darkness. It meant she didn't have to see what he had done to them. She knew they were still there, lifeless eyes staring at her through the dark, begging for help she couldn't give.
This made four. She'd been keeping count. Always keep count. Four pairs, eight people. All dead. And she'd seen all of them die. She'd seen eight lights go out, while hers burned bright.
She'd given up the hope of getting herself out of this; there was no way out. She'd long since given up on anyone finding her. She was beginning to think that there was no point. He had said that if she just did as he said, she'd live. And so far, she was alive.
She tried to remember all their names, but all she could see were their faces. Twisted, crying, bloody, scared, angry faces. Names meant nothing here. He didn't use hers and she didn't know his.
The door cracked open and she closed her eyes automatically. Doing as she was told. Her eyes burned as tears welled but she didn't let them fall. He didn't blindfold her anymore, there was no need. She did as she was told.
There was shuffling and soft grunts, wet thuds and the rustle of clothing. He was taking away the bodies.
The door clicked shut again, never slammed, and she opened her eyes after counting to ten; eight people, four pairs. The room was dark. In a way, she was grateful for the darkness.
ONE WEEK EARLIER - MONDAY
Castle whistled as he unfolded from the cab and started up the sidewalk that led into Central Park. It was early, the sun just barely peeking over the trees of the park and warming the air.
It was a chilly March Monday morning, but Castle was pretty cheery; he'd spent the weekend churning out enough Nikki Heat chapters to get Gina off his back for a month. He'd helped Alexis figure out her top three colleges, seen his mother in one of her plays and even coerced Beckett into seeing a movie with him on Sunday afternoon.
Josh was gone, off in Tanzania and out of Beckett's life, and Castle couldn't be happier; the man had never been around and when he was, Beckett was so over-the-moon about it, it seemed unreal. And not fair; Josh had asked her to go with him on the trip. The three month long trip. Needless to say, Beckett had said no, they'd broken up, Josh had gone to Tanzania and Beckett had gone to the movies with Castle.
As he entered the park and followed the flashing lights and yellow tape, Castle thought back to the movie. They'd had a good time, laughed a lot, joked, same as usual. When they'd shared a cab back to her place, he hadn't pushed to come up but she had invited him anyway.
Granted, she changed her mind in the hallway in front of her door, but he understood, as was their usual, without words that she still needed time before they really talked about what everyone else was already talking about. So he'd kissed her cheek and left with a smile on his face.
"Good morning, Dr. Parish, you look lovely this morning," Castle greeted Lanie with flourish, offering her a bright grin.
"What's got you so cheery this morning?" Lanie questioned, looking up from the body.
"Oh, nothing; just a beautiful morning, don't you think?"
Lanie eyed him suspiciously, but then looked behind him. "So eager you left Kate in the dust?"
Castle looked behind him despite knowing the Beckett wasn't there. "What?" he turned back to the M.E.
"Kate, didn't she ride with you? You never beat her to crime scenes." Lanie said, frowning a little. It wasn't like Kate to be late.
"I'm sure she's just in traffic. She'll be grumpy when she gets here, so I think instead of offering you her coffee, I'll go put it back in the car," Castle said, starting to turn, but Lanie's smaller hand darted out and snagged the cup before he even registered her moving to stand up.
"Nuh-uh, she snoozes, she loses." Lanie took a sip and actually groaned. "Damn this is good, how come you don't bring the rest of us coffee like this, hm, Writer Boy?"
"Because he doesn't love us like he loves Beckett," Came Ryan's voice from behind them both. He and Esposito walked up with notepad and pen in hand.
"Nice, guys." Castle shook his head and turned back to the victim. "So what happened here?"
"Looks like an allergic reaction," Lanie said, pointing out the swelling and saliva around the enlarged mouth, "But I'll have to get him back to the morgue to make sure." Lanie said, taking another sip of Beckett's coffee. "Either of you two heard from Kate?" she continued after swallowing.
"She not here yet?" Esposito commented, looking around for their boss. "I haven't heard from her,"
"Guys, she's probably in traffic, you're freaking me out." Castle said, pulling out his phone.
It always made a knot form in his stomach when he thought of Beckett in danger; whether it be going out on a take-down without him or not picking up her phone after a suspect pick-up.
"See? Look," he held out his phone and a text message from Beckett sat waiting for the three of them to read.
runnin late. see u at the precinct, please bring coffee traffics a bitch
"Well, guess we're starting without her then. I hope you're planning on stopping for another coffee on your way to precinct, bro," Esposito said in farewell before walking off with Lanie.
"Okay, vic's name is George Danes, 63. Bruising around the wrists and ankles suggest he was bound tight, but his prints got a match in the system. Brightman Psychiatric Hospital. Intensive care. Looks like he was being treated for hallucinations," Ryan read off from the folder in front of him.
Upon getting back from the crime scene, Lanie had run the man's finger prints through the system and matched the set to hospital records in the area. Since then, Ryan, Esposito and Castle had compiled a small but concentrated file on the man.
George Danes had been in a car accident several years ago, resulting in brain damage. Violent hallucinations forced his only son, Fred Danes, to admit his father to the hospital where he'd been ever since. Until last night, when George somehow wandered past security and through the city only to ingest a half-eaten bag of peanuts and die from an allergic reaction.
They had spent a few hours killing time by getting any financials together to show payments to the hospital and calling for security tapes before Lanie had a chance to give them results from the autopsy.
"He was healthy, except for the hallucinations. Well fed, no signs of malnourishment or defensive wounds. Stomach contents show a meal of ham, mashed potatoes and corn around six hours before death and traces of peanuts around the time of death." Lanie reported as they stood around George Danes' body.
"So, allergic reaction. He snagged the peanuts and died," Esposito summarized.
"Looks like," Lanie concluded, pulling the sheet back up over the Y-incision.
"When you guys head back upstairs, send Kate down will you, I need to talk to her about something," Lanie said, turning to take her gloves off. Instead of an answer, she was met with silence.
She turned around slowly, eyeing each man in front of her. "What?"
"She hasn't turned up yet, actually, and we haven't heard from her either." Ryan explained slowly.
Castle frowned. Now he was worried. He pulled out his phone as the others watched and dialed Beckett's home number first.
Hi, this is Kate, leave a message and I'll try to get back to you eventually. Beep.
He shook his head and dialed again while Ryan and Esposito pulled out their phones as well.
Lanie watched and twirled the glove nervously between her fingers as the boys called every number they associated with Beckett.
"Not at home," Castle finally stated, jabbing the end button forcefully.
"Not picking up her cell," Esposito recited, still dialing and listening to pre-recorded message.
"Desk sergeant hasn't seen her yet this morning," Ryan reported, shoving his phone in his pocket.
The four exchanged glances before Esposito broke the silence. "Maybe her car broke down. You're always saying she needs a new one, bro." He tried. Castle nodded slowly, trying to force his brain to accept the story.
"Yeah, or maybe her phone just died and traffic's really bad," Ryan chimed in.
Lanie shook her head. "It's been three hours. No way she's still in traffic. Her phone is never dead, and she would rather abandon that piece of crap car and take a cab to the crime scene than leave a vic laying out in the grass while she sat bumper to bumper."
They all shared looks again before moving into action.
"I'll check her apartment," Castle said, digging out his spare key to show the other three.
"I'll keep trying her cell," Lanie said, crossing the room to wash her hands and pick up the office phone.
"I'll check with dispatch, see if they sent her to a different scene," Ryan said, already on his way out of the morgue with his phone half-way to his ear.
"Bro, I'm coming with you, just in case," Esposito said, laying a hand on Castle's shoulder before he could run for the elevator.
"What do you think we're going to find?" Castle asked with a touch of fear in his voice. His writer's imagination was conjuring up way too many unsavory possibilities for him not to be afraid.
"I don't know, but just in case something's not right."
"Let's go."
Beckett's apartment looked normal.
The furniture was all in order; cushions on the couch in a neat row, chairs right way up and tucked in, coffee table in line with the rug.
"It looks fine," Castle commented, moving further into the room with curiosity. There was a thin stack of mail sitting on the kitchen island, a plate with toast crumbs on it and a little smear of peanut butter, a small glass with a sliver of orange juice still in the bottom.
"Beckett?" Esposito called out, walking past the writer and further into the apartment. He went down the short hallway to her bedroom and pushed open the door.
"Castle," he called over his shoulder when he caught sight of the room.
When Castle appeared at his shoulder, the men surveyed the damage.
The duvet from Beckett's bed was stripped from the mattress and thrown to the floor in tangles, the thin blanket underneath it twisted up in the sheets and shoved to the foot of the bed. The two pillows that should have been at the head of the bed were on the floor by the door.
The lamp from her bedside table was knocked off and lay in pieces on the floor, the drawers pulled open. Her closet doors were swung open and hangars littered the floor, the safe that was usually closed and locked on the top shelf was open and a few bills littered the area underneath it.
Beckett's badge sat among the wreckage.
The window was open and the curtains blew gently in the breeze.
"Esposito?" Castle turned a worried, pale face on Esposito.
"I know, don't touch anything." the detective already had his phone to his ear, calling Montgomery.
Lunchtime came and went and soon Ryan and Lanie joined Esposito and Castle at Beckett's apartment as a CSU team went through her bedroom.
"Anything?" Lanie asked for the umpteenth time.
"They're dusting for prints now. I doubt Beckett leaves her window open, especially in March, so hopefully they can pick something up." Esposito said. "How'd you do with the neighbours?"
Ryan flipped open his notebook and scanned his notes. "Nothing much, they heard some banging around close to 6:30 this morning, some shouting, but they never thought to call the police. Next door neighbour didn't even know Beckett's name." Ryan reported, flipping the book shut and sighing.
"Well, what about security cameras in the lobby?" Castle suggested.
"The open window says the perp probably came in through the window and it woke Beckett up, so there won't be a shot of him coming in," Esposito said.
"What about leaving?" Lanie spoke up finally.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.
"Well, if this guy managed to subdue Kate, not an easy feat, its not like he could just throw her down the fire escape, he'd have to go out the front door and through the lobby," Lanie explained. At least, she hoped this nut job couldn't just throw her girl down the fire escape.
"Well, there's no blood on the window or the fire escape, so it's a possibility. I'll go talk to the super again," Ryan turned and left.
"So now what?" Lanie asked.
"Beckett sent you a text, right Castle?" Esposito turned to Castle now, who caught on and pulled out his phone, opening the message.
"Yeah, close to 7."
"If the other tenants heard all hell breaking loose at 6:30, how could she be texting you half an hour later and be fine?" Lanie asked.
"Because she didn't. Is that her number?" Esposito pressed, mentally crossing his fingers.
Castle opened the details on the incoming text and scanned the numbers. "Yeah, I think so. Hang on," he opened his contacts list and matched the numbers for sure. "Yeah, that's her cell phone. So the perp texted me from her phone."
"Wait, lemme see that," Lanie grabbed the phone without waiting for an answer. "Kate is an English Lit. texter; she hates short forms and grammatical errors. Every text I've ever gotten from her, except when she's tipsy, is always typed out perfectly. Including capitals and proper punctuation."
"So this definitely isn't Beckett texting."
Just then, Castle's phone buzzed in Lanie's hand with an incoming text. She looked down at it and nearly dropped the phone.
"What?"
"It's from Kate," she answered, not taking her eyes off her friend's picture ID.
have u figured it out yet?
"What've we got?" Montgomery demanded as the group, minus Lanie, came back into the precinct an hour later.
"Lanie's running the prints we pulled from the window at Beckett's apartment and Ryan's looking through the footage from the security tapes in the lobby. The cameras in the hallways were down for maintenance and the ones in the elevators are just for show." Esposito said.
"Reports from the neighbours put the attack around 6:30am, but there was a text sent from Beckett's phone closer to 7, so she must have been taken before then. I've got tech running down the GPS in her phone to get a location."
"Anybody see her leave the building this morning?" Montgomery asked.
Ryan walked up just then with the DVDs from the security cameras. "Just scanned through these. There's nobody coming in after midnight last night and nobody leaving until just before 7am this morning. Looks like a jogger; dark sweats and dark shoes, hood pulled up and sunglasses. Not a good shot of his face."
"Can you tell the race of the guy?" Castle asked, standing from his perch on the corner of Beckett's desk and moving over to their white board. He refused to think of it as the murder board, even in his mind.
"Tapes in black and white, so it could be tough. The doorman doesn't really remember the guy and there's no shot of him going back into the building." Ryan answered, sticking the blown up frame of the man in sweats on the white board.
The phone on Esposito's desk rang and he rushed to pick it up. "Yeah, okay, thanks Lanie,"
He hung up and turned to face the other three men. "She's got the results back from the finger prints taken from the window frame."
"And?" Castle asked eagerly, hoping it would lead to an ID.
"And, they're Beckett's."
"Okay, why is there no mess in the rest of her apartment?" Castle asked. He, Ryan and Esposito were back at Beckett's apartment, lunches forgotten after hearing the prints on the window were Beckett's.
"Either, the attack never made it out of her bedroom or someone cleaned it up," Ryan offered, looking around the tidy living room.
Castle motioned to the front door. "No signs of forced entry and she didn't let someone in; otherwise there would have been a struggle out here,"
"Okay, so the perp came in through the window, wearing gloves so they wouldn't leave a print." Esposito said, and they all moved to the bedroom.
"So, this guy climbs up the fire escape in the early morning. If you think about it, it's the best time to do it; he wouldn't know if Beckett was pulling an all-nighter and even if she was, she'd be more vulnerable at the early hour and before coffee." Castle started his theory.
"He opens the window and makes it in before Beckett wakes up. If she'd woken up to someone crawling through her window..." Ryan trailed off and they all pictured the ensuing death-by-bullet.
"Okay," Castle moved to stand by the window. "He comes in the window, quietly, but manages to wake her up." he tried not to picture the events unfolding as he told his story, but he couldn't help it.
"They struggle, making a mess of the room, and she somehow gets to her safe in the closet," Ryan says, moving towards the mess of the closet. Clothes and hangars still littered the floor, but the safe was closed.
"She keeps her gun in there when she's off duty and not on call, along with her badge and some spare money." Castle filled in.
Ryan and Esposito stared at him with raised eyebrows and he rolled his eyes. "She told me after her apartment blew up that she was going to do it this way, in case something happened again,"
"Sure, bro."
"Anyway," Castle changed the subject back to the matter at hand. "She gets hold of her gun, but doesn't shoot him. Why?"
They look around the room and then Ryan speaks. "There's something stopping her. Beckett's got crazy good aim, even with adrenaline or fatigue."
"So, something else, physical? Maybe he overpowered her and she couldn't get a shot off?" Castle tried.
"I don't see it, she's a grappler; no way he'd pin her for long,"
"Drugged?" Ryan said quietly after a moment of thinking.
The three men contemplated each other before Castle cleared his throat and spoke. "That makes sense; if she was impaired, she wouldn't be able to fight back well enough to break free. He probably blocked the door and-,"
"She went for the fire escape!" Esposito interrupted, "Lanie said the prints were whole palm impressions, Beckett probably went out through the window to get away."
"But there aren't any other prints, and what are the odds of Beckett letting this guy keep his gloves on?" Ryan said skeptically.
"Well, assuming she's been drugged, she wouldn't get very far, very fast; it could be the jogger in the security tapes is our perp, strolling out leisurely through the front door because he knows he can get to her on the side of the building no problem," Castle explained, looking out the window behind him.
"So the question becomes, how did he get her away from the building without anyone seeing and where did they go?"
The sun was rapidly setting by the time the boys got back to the precinct to add their theory to the board. Lanie had ordered pizza and drinks and was waiting for them in the break room with the logs from Beckett's cell phone.
"Anything come up?" Castle immediately asked.
"Nothing; no unexplained numbers, no strange phone calls, nothing. Same with her credit cards." Lanie answered, picking at her pizza. None of them had an appetite, but they each forced a bite.
"So, what, we're sitting here with nothing?" Castle said, leaning heavily back in his chair. He looked around at the others, noticing the looks on their faces.
He didn't want to face the possibility that Beckett was gone; the fear, the sadness, it was too much. He cared about her, so much, and to even contemplate her being gone, or hurt, was something that tore him to pieces inside.
Lanie looked stressed out and beyond worried, eyes focused on the pizza she couldn't seem to eat any more of. Ryan looked dejected and defeated, but determined and Esposito looked angry, barely suppressing an urge to hit something.
Just as the silence descending over the group started to become too much, Montgomery poked his head into the room and grabbed their attention.
"Bodies dropped, Washington Heights." he said firmly.
"Cap, you can't be serious, we need to find Beckett," Esposito started immediately, almost before the words were out of Montgomery's mouth.
"Karpowsi's catching tonight anyway," Ryan chimed in, picking off a piece of pepperoni from the slice in front of him.
"Her team already secured the crime scene. Everyone's been filled in on Beckett's disappearance, and Karpowski said there was something you should see,"
The crime scene turned out to be a secluded alley behind a bookstore in Washington Heights. The sun was almost fully set and traffic was becoming gridlocked with rush hour drivers. Karpowski met them at the mouth of the alley with a grim expression and a notebook flipped open. Lanie was already moving off to examine the bodies.
"What'd you get?" Esposito asked, shoving his hands into his pockets as the evening chill descended upon them.
"Two vics, one male and one female. No wallets yet. Male is cut to shreds and the female looks to have a single GSW to the chest. The bookstore owner, an Alice James, said someone was banging on the back entrance door and when she finally went to open it and tell whoever it was to go away, she found these two." the group reached the body and Castle immediately frowned. "She called 911 and paramedics showed up, but they were already gone,"
"What's wrong with this picture?" Castle asked, circling the two bodies. They were laid out next to each other, not particularly carefully, but with their hands overlapping.
"Other than the fact that there's two dead bodies in it and Beckett's still missing?" Esposito groused.
Castle circled them again and stopped at their feet, watching their faces as Lanie examined the marks on them closer. "No, come here. Look at them."
Ryan and Esposito did as Castle said and crossed the alley to stand next to him and look down at the bodies.
"I think I see what you mean," Ryan trailed off.
The man was tall and solid, wearing a dark suit and a light blue shirt with a dark, expensive looking coat, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. The woman was tall as well, slim, wearing dark jeans, heels, a light blue sweater and a black leather jacket. She had long brown hair and dark lashes that brushed pale cheeks.
"Dude, it's you and Beckett," Esposito managed. The man's eyes were still open, unseeing, and it sent a shiver down the detective's spine.
"Now you see why I called you in. Beckett goes missing and then these two show up 12 hours later? Not a coincidence." Karpowski said as she wandered over.
"They haven't been dead long. Maybe two hours. They're still warm under the clothes." Lanie said, looking up from the bodies. A CSU tech came over from the dumpsters they'd been inspecting with two sealed baggies, each with an open, empty wallet in it.
"Thanks," Ryan said, taking the baggies. "Looks like, Samuel Bright, 40 and Victoria Bright, 33; both from Inwood. No credit cards or cash left, just the licenses."
"Looks like a robbery, but their murder and Beckett's kidnapping have to be connected." Esposito said.
"Well, let's get them back to the morgue and find out how."
Night had fallen and the precinct was slowly emptying. A few officers and other detectives stayed, trying to find a connection between Beckett and the Brights, lending support to the three men in the break room, going over financials again.
"There's nothing here. None of the Brights phone records have Beckett's phone or the precinct. Their cards aren't used in the same place, like ever, and they're from different neighbourhoods." Ryan pushed the folders away from him, leaning back in his chair and scrubbing his hands over his face.
"There has to be something. If this is the same guy, there's a reason he picked these two." Castle insisted.
"Like what, bro? Have you ever heard Beckett talk about them? Ever seen the Brights before? Aside from the physical similarities, there's nothing."
"There has to be something." Castle said, picking up his mug to take a sip and finding it empty of coffee. He pushed up from his chair to pour himself more.
"Well, obviously Victoria Bright looks like Beckett. And Samuel Bright looks like you. Maybe that's the reason," Ryan spoke, after a long silence stretched between them.
Castle sat back down with his coffee. "I get that the woman looked like Beckett, this guy kidnapped her, but why kill a guy who looks like me?"
"That's the question, isn't it?"
Esposito's cell phone rang as soon as the words were out of his mouth and he answered quickly.
When he hung up moments later, he looked over at the other men. "That was Lanie, she found something."
"Okay, what'd you find?" Castle spoke first, pushing his way through the doors into her lab. As the minutes ticked by, he got more and more agitated, running fingers through his hair in an effort not to fiddle with things, lest it compromise the case.
Lanie sighed and rubbed the back of one wrist against her forehead, both hands still encased in gloves.
"It's hard to tell, but some of the marks on Samuel Bright's body are older than others."
"What's that mean?" Castle asked, nearly interrupting her.
Lanie shot him a look. "Not significantly older, but they're all in various stages of clotting and healing. A few have started to scab a little. The oldest ones are from hours ago, not more that 24. The newest from around his time of death."
"Sounds like torture. Being cut on for hours?" Esposito said lowly, crossing his arms.
Castle's mind immediately went to Beckett, his Beckett, being subjected to the same torture. Smooth skin marred by slices that would turn to scars, blood seeping, skin paling. It was an image he didn't need but couldn't shake.
When Lanie turned to Victoria Bright's body, he flashed on Beckett laying there, sheet covering pale, lifeless skin, eyes closed in death. This needed to stop. Castle needed to find her.
"This poor woman died the same time as her man here. No obvious marks on her anywhere."
"Except for the hole in her chest," Ryan said dully.
"Made by a .45 calibre bullet. Through and through, I'd say close range. Traces of salt on her cheeks. Tears." Lanie said quietly.
The four of them observed the pair on the slabs quietly, the weight of their injuries and implication behind what had happened hunching their shoulders.
"Anything else?" Esposito said gruffly.
"Just this," Lanie held up a small baggie with a few strands of long, dark hair in it.
"Hair?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah," Lanie licked her lips. "One had the root still attached so I ran the DNA. It's Kate's."
Castle's keys hit the lock at exactly 11:30 that night. The boys and Lanie had finally decided they needed to start over fresh in the morning and had convinced Castle to do the same. Not an easy task and one they were hoping to give back to Beckett when they found her.
When, not if. None of them could even think about that.
"Dad? Where have you been? I've been texting and calling all night," Alexis greeted him worriedly at the door. She was in pajamas and had a mug of hot chocolate but looked wide awake.
"Sorry, pumpkin, I guess I had my phone off."
Something in his voice tipped Alexis off that something was wrong. Though he tried to hide it, Castle knew his daughter was too perceptive for her own good sometimes. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Well," He didn't want to tell her. He didn't want to tell Alexis that Beckett was missing, that two bodies had turned up looking like the detective and himself, that he missed Beckett like one of his arms was gone or that it hurt like a physical ache.
"What's happened? Did something happen at the precinct? Are you alright? Is Detective Beckett alright?"
Castle held up a hand and dropped it on his daughter's shoulders to stop her barrage of questions.
He waited a moment, took a breath, swallowed the tears already pricking at the back of his eyes.
"Beckett, she, she's missing. We figured it out this morning," he said quietly.
Alexis stared at him carefully, as if trying to determine if he was telling the truth, before she backed up slowly and sat on the couch. "Missing? Missing as in ran away with a guy or as in took an impromptu vacation and didn't tell anyone or as in..." she trailed off, carefully setting her mug down.
"As in, kidnapped." Castle filled in, dropping heavily onto the couch next to Alexis and pulling her close against him.
"And you don't know who did it? Or why?" she sounded scared, like she was eight years old again and afraid he wouldn't come home from one of those early book signings.
"We'll figure it out. We always do. We'll find her and bring her home."
Alright. First chapter down. How was it?
I realize as I'm editing and posting that I have lots of line breaks...hopefully the flow isn't messed up too much!
Reviews are love!
:)